Join us for an exclusive insiders view into the life of our tigers. Get the chance to interact with our tigers and participate in a wild range of activites. get the chance to bottle feed our yunger tiger cubs and enjoy a thai breakfast. afterward, the tigers walked to the bathing you will bathing tigers with shampoo, walking with big tiger and hand fed chicken for tiger, next walk with our Big Tiger down to the Tiger Canyon to do a special photo a tiger' s head place in your lap.

Daily Schedule at Tiger temple tour Afternoon Program

12:00-15:15 PM. Temple opens. Meet our tigers at the Weterfall area for some photo opportunities.

13:00 PM. Guest have further opportunities to take close tiger , photo with our tiger

Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery

Tiger Temple

Kanchanaburi,Thailand

History of Tiger Temple

Tiger temple and Background of Tiger Temple or Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno was established by the Abbot Phra Acham Phoosit (Chan) Kanthitharo in 1994 by order of his teacher Venerable Luangta Maha Bua Yannasampanno ( The Highly respected and famous meditation guru) The name of the monastery was also given by him to follow his full name.

Since its openning the Temple gained a reputation as a wildlife sanctuary. It atarted with an injured jungle fowl given to the monk by the villagers. Then peacocks came attracted by the calls of a, by then, rather large flock of jungle fowl. an injured wild boar stumbled into the monastery and the monks cared for him until he could be released back into the forest. The next day he came back followed by his family ground of about 10 animals. Now a countless number of wild boar find shelter in the monastery. Villagers also started to bring in unwanted pets: four species of deer moved in, followed by buffalo, cow, ponies and wild goats. All these animals are roaming the grounds of the monastery freely.

The first Tiger cub arrived in the monastery in February 1999. It was a female cub of Indochinese tiger subspecies ( Panthera Tigris Corbetti) and her condition was very poor. When she was only a few months old, her month was killed by poachers near the Thai-Myanmar border. The cub was sold to a wealthy Bangkok resident who ordered her stuffed. A local was hired to do the job, which unfortunately he did not finish, and though he injected her in the neck withpreservative formalin, the cub survived. When she arrived at the monastery she was frail and terrified of the slightest sound. Under the loving care of the monks, the cub recovered but in july 1999 she fell seriously ill and died. People who knew about the incident did not want to see another cub mistreated again, however this was not to be.

The monastery is situated in Kanchanaburi Province an area lying adjacent to Myanmar. The Western forest Complex that s tretches along the border is the largest protected area in Asia and believed to be the home of the largest surviving tiger population in the region. Unfortunately, while this area is protected, poaching still occurs rather frequently. A Thai poacher can get up to US $5,800 for killing a tiger, several years' salary for a farmer. the profit is well worth the risk, and when the mother tiger is killed, the cubs are taken as a bonus or left to fend for themselves in the jungle.

Just a few weeks after the first cub died, two healthy male cubs were intercepted from poachers and were brought to the monastery. they were tiny-just a few weeks old. Afew months later the local villagers presented another two male cubs, and soon after, the border police patrol intercepted cubs helb by poachers and contributed four female cubs, achieving tiger harmony. the Abbot welcomedthe animals and as he had no previous experience in looking after large carnivores, he had to learn on the job, At first he built some large concrete pens-all he could afford, to house the growing cubs in order to prevent them from from killng the other Temple's animals.

As the years went by, the tigers grew up and to the Abbot's surprise and delight, they started to reproduce However, as the tiger family grew, the Abbot became faced with the need to reate more living space for his charges. As early as 2003, the Abbot conceived an ambitious plan to create a large open air enclosure where each tiger would be given 1 Rai ( 1/2 acre ) of land. he set the land aside and construction began.

TIGER TEMPLE - THINGS TO KNOW

Q. Is there a dress Code?A. All visitors to the Temple are required to comply with a standard dress code. LADIES should have their shoulders and chest covered, as well as their legs down to the knee.

When visiting the animals, the following dress code applies:• No red colored clothing is permitted• No flowing skirts or scarves are permitted• No clothing made out of materials that produce audible noise are permitted ( I.E some rain jackets )• No strong smelling perfume is permitted

Q. Is there anything I should know about dealing with Monks?A. Females are not allowed to touch a monk under any circumstances.

Q. Is there anything I should know about entering temples?A. When entering the temple you are required to take of yours shoes and any head wear. You should remain silent where possible.

Q. Are the Tigers drugged?A. No, they are not drugged. Tigers are nocturnal animals, so they sleep during the heat of the day. The tiger’s eyes are better adapted to lower light levels than their prey species, so they can surprise their prey with greater ability in darkness. This means they are more active and hunt at night. Adult tigers are naturally lazier, whereas the cubs are more active and will play if it is not too hot.